Hippy crack driver killed passenger in 103mph smash
A MOTORIST high on ‘hippy crack’ who crashed a car travelling at 103mph and killed her passenger was jailed yesterday.
Nasrin Saleh – in a ‘euphoric’ state after inhaling nitrous oxide gas – was at the wheel of a high-powered VW Golf GTI in a 40mph zone when it struck a brick wall next to a roundabout, flipped over and was engulfed in flames.
A taxi driver and another man dragged Saleh out of the wreckage but the cabbie was beaten back by flames trying to save front- seat passenger Luqman Mehboob, who died of his injuries.
Saleh, 26, a single mother of a six-year-old son, was jailed for four-and-a-half years after pleading guilty to causing death by dangerous driving in October 2021.
She admitted to rescuers how she and Mr Mehboob, 28, had been ‘doing balloons’ and taking turns to drive, Liverpool Crown Court heard. The car had been borrowed
from one of graduate Mr Mehboob’s cousins but neither he nor Saleh were insured.
A mutual friend, who had earlier been in the Golf, told how Saleh was ‘having loads’ of canisters, approximately two to three boxes which each contained 15 canisters.
Judge David Aubrey KC told Saleh she was ‘ in a state of euphoria and driving a powerful vehicle that you were unfamiliar with at grossly excessive speeds’.
The victim’s mother Fahmida Kauser said in a statement that her only child had always helped others, adding: ‘His presence brought many smiles and his words were always listened to.’
Arthur Gibson, prosecuting, told the court, packed with relatives and friends of Mr Mehboob and Saleh, that the tragedy occurred at about 4.45am near Alder Hey Children’s Hospital on a road with
‘He brought many smiles’
a 40mph speed limit. Analysis of CCTV footage from a house 470 metres from the roundabout showed that the car was travelling at 103mph.
After taxi driver Russell Cooper pulled Saleh out, she said: ‘We were doing balloons, me baby, me friend. Is he still in there?’ Fuad Arshad, defending, said of Saleh: ‘ There is real sorrow and remorse.’ Saleh, of Wavertree, Liverpool, was also banned from driving for six years.